{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T01:43:35Z","timestamp":1760060615584,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,12]],"date-time":"2025-09-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1757635200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["TropicalMed"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In 2024, a significant pertussis surge in Queensland, Australia, strained public health resources. To improve investigation efficiency, the Wide Bay Public Health Unit introduced an online survey for pertussis cases on 1 August 2024, which collected data and provided automated health advice. This retrospective evaluation assessed survey acceptance and staff workload. A controlled interrupted time series (ITS) analysis compared pertussis incidence in the intervention region against a control group of four other de-identified regional hospital and health services in Queensland where the survey was not implemented. Of the 298 eligible cases, 140 responded (47.0%); a total of 67.9% of these required no further staff follow-up, a subgroup for whom time savings were statistically significant (p &lt; 0.01). The ITS analysis for the total population revealed a significant 4.9% weekly reduction in the notification trend compared to the control group (Rate Ratio: 0.95, p = 0.001), with a non-significant immediate level change. The online survey is a practical and effective tool for pertussis investigation in a regional setting. It is associated with significant workload efficiencies and a favourable, statistically significant impact on community disease transmission trends.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/tropicalmed10090260","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,12]],"date-time":"2025-09-12T07:52:28Z","timestamp":1757663548000},"page":"260","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Evaluation of an Online Survey for Pertussis Case Investigations in Regional Queensland: Impacts on Workload and Disease Trends"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5443-7545","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ho Yeung","family":"Lam","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Wide Bay Public Health Unit, Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health, Hervey Bay, QLD 4655, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4770-8308","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arifuzzaman","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Wide Bay Public Health Unit, Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health, Hervey Bay, QLD 4655, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-4411-3049","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Matthew","family":"O\u2019Bryan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Wide Bay Public Health Unit, Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health, Hervey Bay, QLD 4655, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-4629-4782","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michelle","family":"Jones","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Wide Bay Public Health Unit, Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health, Hervey Bay, QLD 4655, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Josette","family":"Chor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Wide Bay Public Health Unit, Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health, Hervey Bay, QLD 4655, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"557","DOI":"10.1093\/femspd\/ftv055","article-title":"Bordetella pertussis, B. parapertussis, vaccines and cycles of whooping cough","volume":"73","author":"Bouchez","year":"2015","journal-title":"Pathog. Dis."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"557","DOI":"10.1093\/infdis\/jiab480","article-title":"Waning Immunity After Receipt of Pertussis, Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Polio-Related Vaccines: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis","volume":"225","author":"Gao","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Infect. Dis."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Interim Australian Centre for Disease Control (2024). Pertussis CDNA National Guidelines for Public Health Units."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Queensland Health (2025, August 27). Notifiable Conditions Annual Reporting, Available online: https:\/\/www.health.qld.gov.au\/clinical-practice\/guidelines-procedures\/diseases-infection\/surveillance\/reports\/notifiable\/annual."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"European Centre for Disease Prevention Control (2021). Digital Technologies for the Surveillance, Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases\u2014A Scoping Review of the Research Literature\u20142015\u20132019, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1089\/fpd.2020.2862","article-title":"Using Online Surveys for Enteric Disease Case Investigations: A Pilot Project","volume":"18","author":"White","year":"2021","journal-title":"Foodborne Pathog. Dis."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"R Core Team (R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing, 2025). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing, Version 4.4.2."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1686","DOI":"10.21105\/joss.01686","article-title":"Welcome to the Tidyverse","volume":"4","author":"Wickham","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Open Source Softw."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Venables, W.N., and Ripley, B.D. (2002). 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Pract."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"e40922","article-title":"Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbots in Medicine: A Supplement, Not a Substitute","volume":"15","author":"Altamimi","year":"2023","journal-title":"Cureus"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"377","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbi.2008.08.010","article-title":"Research electronic data capture (REDCap)\u2014A metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support","volume":"42","author":"Harris","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Biomed. Inf."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Harris, P.A., Taylor, R., Minor, B.L., Elliott, V., Fernandez, M., O\u2019Neal, L., McLeod, L., Delacqua, G., Delacqua, F., and Kirby, J. (2019). The REDCap consortium: Building an international community of software platform partners. J. Biomed. 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